


Home is Here, Where You Are

by rabbit_thorn



Category: Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: Acedeuce Hang Out And Are Silly, Bakery, Catrey Are Married But Not Actually, Domestic, Heartslabyul Are Simply a Found Family I Think, M/M, Post-Graduation, Riddle Actually Has Lines in This One I Swear, a Bit of Angst as a Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26653717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabbit_thorn/pseuds/rabbit_thorn
Summary: A post-graduation au(?) where Cater and Trey own a bakery together along with their cat, Lady Florentine. And the rest of the heartslabyul gang is there too! Also pretend that Trey's family bakery is close to the school thank you.
Relationships: Ace Trappola/Deuce Spade (Very Minor), Cater Diamond/Trey Clover
Kudos: 30





	Home is Here, Where You Are

Nothing will ever beat waking up to the smell of a bakery first thing in the morning. Cater rubs his eyes sleepily and looks over at the window, a grey light spilling between the woven curtains. It was still early in the morning, but it already showed signs of rain on the way. He sits up and wraps a blanket around his shoulders, reaching over to the bedside table so he can check his phone. There are a few unread messages, most of them sent by Ace.

'Good morning! We are on our way over.'

'Deuce says he wants a bagel.'

'He also says good morning.'

Cater chuckles fondly. Ace and Deuce are in their third year now, but they somehow make it a routine to get up before classes start and get breakfast at Trey's bakery. Though he never says it out loud, he's thankful that they still get to see each other and talk. The thought of them growing apart after their time together at heartslabyul had plagued his mind for a while, but luckily, it never happened.

After graduation, Cater had no idea what to do with himself. His family was open to the idea of letting him move back home for a while, but he had insisted on being able to figure something out, not wanting to become a burden to them. Trey already knew that he wanted to take over his family's bakery, at least for a while, and offered to let Cater work for him until he decided on what he wanted to do. Cater had... hesitantly accepted. He knew and liked Trey, as they had grown close after all of those years together at NRC, but deep inside of Cater's mind he thought his friend was disappointed in his lack of direction and only reached out out of pity. After a whole year of Trey frequently praising Cater for his hard work and assuring him that he's glad to have his help, those thoughts slowly receded, but never fully left the back of his mind.

There's a knock on the door, grabbing Cater's attention away from his screen.

"You awake?"

The voice comes quietly from between the door frame, the figure haloed by the glow of the lights against the dark of Cater's bedroom. Trey. His apron is lightly dusted with flour from this morning's batch of freshly made goods. Cater has grown accustomed to this sight, but it still never fails to make his chest feel warm with a kind of pride. Trey has never ceased to amaze him. He always works hard and and aspires to be the kind of person who helps others, no matter how insignificantly. 

Lady Florentine, their cat, lazily walks into the room and leaps onto the bed to sit by Cater's feet. He sighs and scratches behind her soft orange ears. He couldn't help but shower her with attention whenever she was around. Her chubby body from Trey frequently feeding her scraps of food mixed with her silky smooth fur from Cater's constant grooming made it almost impossible to not want to hold and baby her. He takes photos of her to post to his magicam account almost daily.

"Now I am. What do you need help with?" Cater stretches his arms above his head and looks up at Trey, who's giving him a gentle look he's seen often enough that he tries not to think about for too long.

"I'd love help with rolling out some dough if you wouldn't mind."

Cater gives Trey an 'ok' sign with his hand, and groggily gets out of bed. He can do this part of his part of his morning routine with his eyes closed. 'Get dressed, wash his face, brush his teeth, do his hair, and then put on his apron.' It had become something of a comforting ritual, waking up with little uncertainty as to what the morning would bring.

Trudging his slippered feet into the kitchen, the air around him gets warmer, which is much appreciated with the coming autumn chill. Large ovens fired up and filled with racks of baking breads line one of the walls. Cater walks over to one of them and puts his hands out in front of it and hums in appreciation. This was another thing he was grateful for; the warmth first thing in the morning. 

"Deuce says he wants a bagel today." He says, moving towards the counter laden with a dusted rolling pin and some rounded dough ready to be shaped.

"Oh? He usually asks for scones." Trey remarks, pulling out food to put on the little displays in the bakery window.

Cater begins to get to work, rolling dough and occasionally responding to Trey's ramblings about his dream the night before.

The bronzed bell above the entrance of the bakery chimes, telling them that their first costumers of the day have arrived. Trey finishes what he's doing and then walks through the kitchen door to the front counter. Cater hears slightly muffled voices exchanging words back and forth and then the cash register opening then closing. Trey comes back into the kitchen smiling.

"It's Ace and Deuce. They want to say hi."

Cater puts down the rolling pin and wipes his hands on his apron. Ace and Deuce were sitting at one of the many wooden tables, talking and laughing. How they managed to have so much energy was beyond him. It took nearly half a year or having to be nudged out of bed by Trey and sleepy threats in response for him to get up this early. Rain has already started to fall outside, and he could see that the pair's school uniforms were slightly wet. Cater grabs two hand towels and begins walking towards them.

"Good morning." Ace and Deuce look up at him as he sits down next to them, immediately having his attention grabbed by Ace.

"Cater! Guess who's back in town-"

"Dumbass it's supposed to be a surprise." 

"Oops.."

Cater looks at them curiously, only to have them quickly change the subject to complaining about teachers and potential internships for the following year. 

"Careful, they're hot." Trey brings the boys' breakfasts to their table and after thanking him, they immediately begin eating. Lady Florentine has sneakily hidden herself under the table and licks up whatever falls onto the floor.

Cater decided to get up and go back into the kitchen to finish the morning prep work.

More customers come and go throughout the morning, Ace and Deuce getting up to leave not too long after they finish eating to get to their classes. Trey calls them over and ruffles both of their hair before they go, and Cater can clearly hear their disgruntled replies from where he stands in the kitchen.

Nothing of note happened for a good majority of the morning, Cater and Trey switching between manning the register and making food. Lady Florentine keeps herself busy with eating leftovers and getting cooed at by the customers.

After classes finish for Ace and Deuce, they return to do some 'homework'. In reality they just mess around and throw sugar packets at each other. Cater scolds them but Trey just thinks it's funny, laughing behind his hand. Cater internally thinks it's charming when he does that, but will never give the other the satisfaction of knowing this. Another chime announces the arrival of a new client. Riddle.

He had graduated that year and set out to work for some fancy business after working at their local library for a few months, claiming for it to be good practice for future jobs. Cater and Trey both joked that he was just using it as an excuse to reorganize shelves and be passive aggressive to people who damaged textbooks. Unfortunately, Riddle's new job left little room for getting together and most conversation these days were through messages and late-night calls.

"Riddle! What a nice surprise." Trey walks over and welcomes their friend inside while Cater finishes cleaning up a recently vacated table.

"Yes, yes. I'm glad to be here. It looks like you guys are having fun over here." 

The five of them spend the afternoon sitting in a booth, catching up and laughing. Cater and Trey periodically get up to help a customer or pull things out of the ovens, but overall, it feels cozy and Cater feels happy to be together with his friends again. Trey gets up to switch spots with Cater in the kitchen. Ace and Deuce are invested in babying Lady Florentine, who is basking in the affection, chubby legs spread out in front and behind her.

Riddle pats the spot next to him in the booth where they all sit, telling Cater to 'come here'. He makes his way over and sits down next to him.

"How long are you planning on staying here? With Trey?"

Cater knows that Riddle doesn't mean any harm by the question, but it still resurfaces his anxieties of feeling like an unnecessary responsibility to Trey.

"I'm not sure... I'm still trying to figure out what kind of career I want to go into."

"You look really happy here with him you know that? It's so domestic it's sickening." The last sentence was said lightheartedly with a small smile.

Cater could feel himself turning red. Before he can let out a snarky response, Trey comes back and sits himself into the bench opposite of them./p>

"Are you okay?" Trey asks, looking at Cater with a furrowed brow.

"I'm fine! Really." Cater quickly shoots a glare at Riddle, who silently stares back in mock innocence.

Without warning, Trey reaches over and feels the other's forehead. 'This is how I die.' Cater thinks, trying his best to stay calm and not physically melt.

"You feel warm... Do you want me to get you some water?" Cater couldn't answer fast enough.

"Yes, please!" 

Trey stands up and walks into the kitchen. Cater is about to scold Riddle when he says something unexpected.

"I think you should stay here."

Cater sends Riddle a look at says 'sure.'

"No really. You seem to be taking care of yourself and enjoying life enough. It seems good for you here."

"I don't know... I feel like I'm just getting in the way here. He's serious about this bakery, and what if I'm holding him back from giving it his all?"

"I highly doubt he would feel that way. If he did, I would smack him upside the head. Besides, you can always come work with me if things somehow don't go well here."

Cater appreciates the offer, but doesn't really want to work a desk job all day.

"Cater, look at Florentine! She's trying to use Deuce's phone." He looks over at Ace and Deuce and sees Lady Florentine pawing at Deuce's phone and laughs, pulling out his own phone and taking some pictures.

Trey returns a bit later and sends Cater another silent look of concern, but he waves it off.

They all continue talk until the sun begins to set, and Ace and Deuce need to get back so they can get ready for bed. Cater decides to walk everyone outside while Trey volunteers to clean up shop. He hadn't noticed when it stopped raining, but the fresh air and wispy pale grey clouds lining the horizon felt welcome.

"Bye Cater! Bye Trey!" Ace and Deuce are laughing as they run out into the street, stolen tarts in hand. Cater thinks he sees them holding hands, but doesn't look long enough to really tell. 

Riddle stands next to him, slight smile on his face. Cater has known him long enough to know that this means that Riddle feels content, which makes him happy. Riddle looks at Cater, getting ready to head off as well.

"Think about what I said."

Cater rolls his eyes playfully and gives his friend a hug, catching him off guard.

Riddle silently hugs him back quickly and walks into the golden-pink sunlight, moving in the direction of the bus station. He turns around before Cater can walk back inside.

"And Cater? ... Take care of yourself. Please."

Cater smiles and waves at his friend until he can no longer see him, then closes the door behind himself as he heads back inside. He looks over at Trey, who is quietly humming as he sweeps the floor. The rays of light filtering through the windows highlight his lashes and caress his face and oh god the butterflies were back.

Before Cater can grab the other broom to distract himself, Trey cuts in.

"You should lie down. You didn't look so hot earlier. I can handle things here."

Riddle's words from earlier mingled with his own anxieties made him feel... useless. Like he was being babied in order to push him out of the way.

"Am I a burden to you?" Cater blurts it out before he can catch himself. "Because I don't want you adding more to your plate! I promise I can take responsibility and help out more and get up earlier to help with prepping ovens and-" He couldn't stop talking and his mind was racing the worst possible scenarios; Trey might kick him out. He might come to loathe Cater for being a bother. He might never want to see Cater again which would make him even more upset with himself and sad.

Trey doesn't say anything, but instead wraps his arms around Cater tightly. Cater's thoughts and words stop and he can feel his eyes beginning to water, but he's too tired to care. He slowly, slowly, reaches and embraces Trey in his arms, squeezing his eyes shut. If this were any other time, he would probably scold himself for being so openly vulnerable and weak, and he wanted to now, but Trey is warm and solid and just feels like home.

After taking a couple steadying breaths, he pulls away and wipes his eyes with his sleeves.

"You must really think I'm pathetic now, huh?" Trey looks at him in the way he does when Cater shows him a funny shaped loaf of bread, or singing to Lady Florentine. So filled with affection.

"Not at all." He says matter of factly. "On the contrary I think you're really strong, Cater."

Cater wants to cry again, because hearing someone say those words to him feels wrong yet reassuring. He sighs deeply, and just smiles in response. Turning to to walk away, he feels a hand slide into his own and squeeze. He turns back around and sees Trey, his apron covered in flour and messy hair illuminated a greenish gold and looking at him like he's the best thing in the world. 

Cater feels himself blush again, and he's pretty sure Trey sees him accidentally bump into two tables heading into the kitchen to get to his bedroom because he can hear loud, endearing laughter from behind him as he goes.

After a long day full of emotions, Cater feels exhausted. He puts on his pajamas and gets into bed, staring up at the ceiling. It was finally dark and he felt Lady Florentine trill and lay down by his feet. His phone, lying on his nightstand, flashes with a text notification. It's from Trey.

'Goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow.'

Cater feels himself smile, and gently clutches his phone close to his chest. He didn't know how much longer it would stay like this. Maybe a month, maybe 5 more years, but regardless of the answer he knew that he would continue to enjoy every second of it as long as Trey will have him.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry for the long fic this time around jdjdj i don't plan on writing a whole lot of other long fics but this idea has been living in my head rent free for weeks so i hope you enjoyed it ;) the next fic i have planned is a lot more 'crackfic-y' so look forward to that


End file.
